Inside Scoop on SQL Saturday 58 – Minnesota

I wanted to give everyone a good heads up on what is going on with the SQL Saturday that is scheduled for this Friday, October 29 at Mystic Lake Casino in Prior Lake, MN. The registration for this event has been closed for a while now and we are fully booked for this event. We also have a fantastic line up with 5 tracks (2 DBA, 2 BI, 1 SQL DEV) and 6 sessions (presentations) per track – Schedule – so it is understandable why we are sold out for this event. Well ‘sold out’ is not exactly true, because this is a FREE event that is being made possible because of all of the Sponsors that have stepped forward to make a contribution and have shown their support and commitment to our community. There has been a lot of work put in to get this event put together and I need to thank all of those involved. The current Executive Board (and my wife) has done a fantastic job getting sponsors, getting the location planned, and making all of the additional preparations (printing, stuffing bags, ordering items, cutting items, stapling items, responding to numerous emails, etc.). This is by no means a simple task to put together and organize and compared to last years event the preparation has almost tripled in size.

So on to some of the details now. The agenda for the day is as follows:

Time

Event

7:30

Registration (by Dakota Ballroom)

8:00

Pre-show (in each Track room)

8:15

Session 1

9:30

Session 2

10:45

Session 3

11:45

Lunch (in Dakota Ballroom)

12:00

Keynote/Sideshow/Announcements

1:00

Session 4

2:15

Session 5

3:30

Session 6

4:30

Raffle (in Dakota Ballroom)

5:00

After Party Event (Mc Hugh’s Grille & Bar – Savage, MN)

Each session will be 1 hour in duration, so the talks will be probably around 50 minutes in duration so that we have 10 minutes or so available for Questions/Answers. There is seating in each track for 66 people (3 rows of classroom seating and 3 rows of theater style seating). Attendees can attend any track and session that interests them. Each attendee that is registered for the event and on the attendee list will receive an attendee bag that is filled with information from our sponsors, event guide, network bingo card, and speaker evaluation forms. During registration attendees will also get a name badge and raffle tickets that they can place in the raffle baskets located on each of the sponsor tables.

The network bingo cards are going to be used to award 2 individuals with an MSDN Ultimate Subscription that are being contributed by myself and Jason Strate (thanks to the MVP program). These will be raffled off at the end of the event. The sponsors will raffle their items off at the end of the event as well. Unless noted otherwise, attendees can only win one raffle prize and you must be present to win.

We will have continental breakfast located in the session/sponsor area

and for lunch a buffet style setup will be in the Dakota Ballroom will include a deli sandwich setup with pastas and some dessert.

The food order has been set and there is a limited number which is based on our funding. Hopefully we will be okay, but I apologize if for some reason we run out or do not have enough seats. This has been a very difficult task to coordinate and I have done my best to try and accommodate as many people that I believe we can. Definitely provide me any feedback and please be kind, because don’t forget this is a FREE event and a lot of work has gone into make this happen. Not only are we organizing and working during this event, but some of us are also going to present (and Jason is doing two presentations – true SQL warrior).

We will have a prize table setup and each speaker will be provided a couple of prize tickets that they will be able to give out. The attendees that receive these tickets will then be able to go to the prize table and select an item of their choosing. For the most part the prize will be a book and we have received books from Wrox, O’Reilly (and ebook offers), Apress, Pearson’s Education, and McGraw-Hill Professional. It is truly amazing all of the support we have gotten from all of the Sponsors – thank you so much.

One last item before I sign off and get ready for work today, I just wanted to mention that there will be free WIFI in the conference area. I am planning on testing that out Thursday night when I am out there for the speaker/volunteer dinner. I am looking forward to meeting everyone and I apologize if I am a little out of it on Friday and have to cut our chats short because I will be running around making sure everything is going as smooth as possible. It will be interesting heading back to Mystic Lake Casino Hotel since that is where I used to work for over 10 years. Lots of memories.

If you are on the waiting list I apologize. We have been having cancellations which will enable the waiting list attendees a spot. I cannot guarantee a spot (primarily when it comes down to the food). If you show up on the day of the event and we do not reach our max capacity once the first session starts we should be able to get you included in the event. We just request that you be patient as we get all of the registered attendees signed up and once it begins we will assess where we are at and do our best to get you included. We definitely want to allow everyone to attend, but we are limited on the food based on funds and we want to make sure that those that did register get a spot to sit in their sessions that they want to attend.

Hope to see you there – SQL Saturday #58 Minnesota. Don’t forget you can tweet and follow information about the event using the hash tag #sqlsat58. Later!